


A Miraculous Cycle

by Neone



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gen, actual-ancient-protector-of-humankind!Ladybug, immortal au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-05-02 01:57:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5229503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neone/pseuds/Neone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the battle with the Pharaoh, Chat Noir figured his Lady would laugh with him at the idea that she was actually several thousand years old.<br/><br/>Things don't go the way he'd expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has gone through three rewrites, and I'm finally happy with how it's come out. Enjoy! ^.^

Perched on the edge of the roof the trio was standing on, Ladybug sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. Her bodysuit kept out the chilly evening winds, but it did nothing to shield her from her memories. She hated this part; telling the story. It never got any easier.

At least she had gotten Alya to put away the phone. She didn’t mind a civilian learning things, especially one who has dedicated so much of herself to such a small part of the story, but Ladybug drew the line at having the whole thing available online. She held back a chuckle at the girl’s stubbornness. It had probably been Chat Noir’s ‘bad luck’ influencing them that had the girl in hearing-range when Chat had mentioned the Egyptian artifact after Pharaoh had been defeated.

And Ladybug had sworn to herself that when her partner brought up their history, she’d tell him. She could justify hiding a few things, but the rest…

It always ended so _hard_ when Chat Noir stayed oblivious to the true scale of the war.

“So…?” Alya spoke up when it became obvious neither of the heroes were going to. She glanced at Chat and his uncharacteristic silence. “You’re… really 4,000 years old?”

Ladybug took a breath and turned towards them. She managed a small, wry grin. “Older, technically, but I’ve long since stopped keeping track.”

Chat opened his mouth and let out a squeak. His face reddened as he cleared his throat. “ _How?_ ”

Ladybug lightly tapped her earrings. “The Miraculous can do a lot more for their user then transform them and summon mystical attacks.” Chat rubbed a thumb over his own ring.

As soon as they had landed on the abandoned building, Ladybug had done… something to his Miraculous. She’d brushed it with a finger and the two remaining claws had gone back to a full paw and stayed like that. It had always struck him as odd that his transformation didn’t last nearly as long as hers; he’d never seen her earrings lose even a single dot. Was _this_ why?

“What _are_ the Miraculous?” Alya frowned. “Everyone knows Hawkmoth wants them—and that you two have them—but not why.”

“They’re… relics from a time when magic was more common,” Ladybug answered, turning back to the Paris sunset, clasping her hands behind her back. “They hold immense power within them and can do great things for their wielders: my longevity, for example.”

“And you only have _one_ …” Alya mused, tapping her cheek. Her eyes widened. “Then with _more_ than one…”

Ladybug nodded curtly. “And in the hands of someone like Hawkmoth… You get why I can’t let that happen.”

Chills ran up the two teenagers’ spines, and they exchanged a look. Definitely not.

Chat frowned. “If…” Ladybug looked back over her shoulder at him; he straightened up under her gaze. “If you’re immortal—well, the tablet had a picture of _Chat Noir_ , too, so why…?”

“Why am I so ancient while you’re only a teenager?”

He nodded.

“That’s a story of its own; there… used to be more of us.”

“ _More?”_ Alya asked. “How many more?”

A nostalgic smile slipped onto Ladybug’s face. “Three.” She threw her arms out suddenly with ancient enthusiasm, as if she could hold the sky. “Five mighty warriors! Protecting mankind from whatever appeared to harm them!”

Her words were punctuated with a rueful chuckle. “And you would not _believe_ how many dangers there were in ancient times. Powerful beings warred with each other for dominion; for eons, the entire _planet_ was a battlefield.”

Her arms dropped back to her sides, solemn, energy gone as quickly as it had appeared. “And none but us were devoted to making sure humanity survived it all.”

Ladybug turned slightly and gave a soft smile to Alya, intercepting her no-doubt flood of questions before it could begin. “The Miraculous were created of humanity’s wishes and hopes; such things had a much more… dramatic effect back then. The kwami, wardens of the Miraculous, traveled all over the world in search of those who would carry the Miraculous and keep humanity safe.” Her smile turned fond as she caressed an earring. “And one of them found me.”

“…What happened to the others?” Chat asked, mind musing that Plagg, Chat’s usually exasperating, cheese-obsessed partner, was as much of an ancient guardian of humanity as his Lady. He couldn’t see it.

Ladybug drooped, bangs falling over her eyes as her hands clenched, drawing Chat from his thoughts.

“One was… lost. Two went off on their own to help the first, and never came back.”

Chat joined her at the roof edge, eyes flickering between the sky—stars were beginning to appear—and her. The pain in her eyes had him hesitate, and then decide against asking her to explain what ‘lost’ meant. Alya took a few steps forwards, but stopped before she got too close, feeling so much like an outsider.

“The first Chat Noir and I searched all over the world for them, but we couldn’t find the slightest _trace_ of them. They were just… gone. It was... a blow to our fighting strength and our morale, not knowing what happened to them, but eventually we got used to fighting as just the two of us.” She chuckled dryly and nodded at the current Chat. “And we got very good at it; it’s practically _instinct_ now-a-days with just the two of us.”

Silence fell. Chat reached out a hand towards her shoulder several times, but stopped, clenching it into a fist and dropping it to his side each time. Alya bit her lip to keep herself from asking.

Fortunately for her, she didn’t have to.

“What happened to him?” Chat asked, softly.

“Hawkmoth,” Ladybug answered, voice flat.

Chat startled. “Hawk—how old is _he_?”

“Not ancient, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Ladybug took a few steps, following along the roof and turned slightly, bracing herself against the brick structure hiding the roof-access stairs. She slid down and settled on the ground. Chat followed a moment later, sitting beside her while Alya took her other side. Ladybug leaned her head back and spread her legs out in front of her, knees bent. She closed her eyes and sighed.

“Hawkmoth came to our attention some time later; by that time, he had mastered corrupting people with his akuma, and eventually it got to the point that we were struggling to purify them. Something had to change, or Hawkmoth would overwhelm us and take all the power of the Miraculous for himself.”

Ladybug took a breath. “So, Chat used his Miraculous to tie his own life, hid fate, with Hawkmoth’s,” she ignored the look he gave to his ring, “to try to curb how out of control he was getting. But…” Ladybug forced herself to continue. No matter how many times she told it, it always squeezed her heart when she talked about it. “The corruption that Hawkmoth wielded was a part of him. Once bound together, it was impossible for Chat to keep that same corruption from getting to him.”

“Oh, no…” Chat breathed.

Ladybug clasped her hands on her knees and leaned forward, her voice lowering so much the other two had to strain to catch it. “He struggled with it, but Hawkmoth didn’t give him the chance to adjust… It overwhelmed him, and turned him into an akuma.”

Ladybug shot up onto her feet, scowling, and paced, rushing from one end of the roof to the other, the other two watching silently as the old anger rose to the surface. “I _told_ him it was a long shot; far too long to risk _all_ that he _is_. But, of course, the dumb cat didn’t _listen_ —”

She stopped short and sighed. “Just like all the Chats when things come down to the wire, regardless if they learn the whole story or not.”

The look in her eyes as she turned to the still-living Chat would never leave him. “ _None_ of them _listen_ when I yell at them to not to be so self-sacrificing. I can act like the strictest, cold-hearted harpy that ever lived, and _still_ they don’t _hesitate_ to—” Her voice broke.

_The storm poured down in buckets, but she couldn’t feel the cold winds blowing against her when her heart was so numb. Her vision was blurred by the rain, heedless of the fact that her head was bent forwards over— She could only focus on streaming red and a voice, nearly gone, but still teasing to his last breath._

_“I knew you had a heart in there…”_

She took a ragged breath.

Chat couldn’t say anything. He would never be anything less than her stalwart defender. To not do so would ruin him in ways he’s never let himself think too much about.

“You… But you…” Alya stopped, unsure how to word it. “You can _purify_ …”

Ladybug sniffled and dabbed her eyes with the back of her fingers, facing resolutely away from them.

“I couldn’t bring myself to fight him; I was still mostly in shock. But, I didn’t have to.” She kept her voice low. “You see, that mangy cat had _planned_ for that possibility. With the last shred of his will, carefully preserved by his kwami, he used cataclysm on _himself_.”

(Alya held back a shudder at the power that _rusts metal_ being used on a human. Chat’s hand twitched.)

“Of course, tied together as they were, Hawkmoth didn’t survive the experience, either.”

Alya murmured, “…Leaving you as the last defender.” Then she frowned. “Then, how is he _back_? And what’s up with him?” She pointed a thumb in Chat’s direction, who raised an eyebrow. “And all the Chat Noirs since?”

Subdued, Ladybug said, “His last words were a promise; that no matter what, he’d always come back to me.” She shook her head, a small smile slipping onto her face. “The silly cat manages to figure out reincarnation, and he uses it to make sure _I’d_ always be looked after. Go figure.”

She nodded to Chat. “Plagg—his kwami—” she said aside to Ayla, “uses the bond between the ring and the first Chat Noir to find his soul— _his_ soul—” she nodded at the present Chat, “again, and so the cycle continues.”

Ladybug walked closer to where the two still sat, and reached down a hand to him. “So it has been for thousands of years, and… so it will probably be for thousands of _more_ years.”

Dazed by it all, he took the hand and she pulled him up, then did the same for Alya.

Once they were both standing, Ladybug backed up to the edge.

“I’ve dropped a lot tonight; take some time to think it through. I’ll see you at our next patrol.” She sent a short salute to Chat Noir, and then turned to Alya.

“I would appreciate it if you _didn’t_ put all of this on your blog.” Ladybug twirled a pig-tail around a finger. “I don’t think the world’s authorities would be very happy if they knew the full extent of the power the Miraculous has.” She grew somber. “The time of magic’s peak has long since passed, with good reason. It would cause… _mass_ amounts of chaos if it were to be re-introduced. Well…” Ladybug idly rubbed a cheek with a finger. “More then what the city has seen from the two of us, at least. But _that_ was carefully considered.”

Reluctantly, Alya nodded while Chat Noir blinked. “You mean we could do more then what we can now?”

With a smile, Ladybug nodded. She conferred silently with Tikki for a few moments, and then her amused smile grew devious.

“I’ll see you again soon.” She sent a much more cheerful salute to the two, and then back flipped off the roof.

As the two rushed to the edge, a flash of light illuminated the alley below, and when they looked down, Ladybug was nowhere to be seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  I was toying with adding the idea of Ladybug and Chat Noir being technically soul mates since the love the first Chat had for Ladybug has obviously stuck through his lives, but it didn't happen here, as well as a vague idea of how this changes Marinette's home life.  
>   
> I'll probably write some more, most likely snippets because I am not prepared to write a full story with this idea, though I do have some backstory and where the story could head beyond this point...  
>   
> I'm kind of excited for it, actually. ^.^  
>   
> ~~~  
>   
> The first version of the idea had them both being reincarnations with them remembering their past lives the first time they transform, but it wasn't flowing. ^.^'  
>   
> The second was a lot closer to this final version, but didn't have Alya. After sleeping on it and exploring the possibilities, I decided to add her. Nino will also eventually learn things when Adrien is revealed to them.  
>   
> (Not sure if they should know Marinette. I'm leaning towards mostly-no, but maybe they've seen her. Like, Mari works at a local popular bakery they go to a lot (working for her canon, though here kid-less parents) and she tends to give them free treats (immortality makes it very easy to become rich; she slips the money into the register afterwards.))  
>   
> Comments, questions, concerns? ^.^  
> 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter, yay!
> 
> Though it's shorter than the last one. ^.^' I was gonna add more, but I didn't like how it was flowing, so I scrapped it. I'll rework those bits for the next chapter.
> 
> Also, if you see any typos, feel free to point 'em out. I re-read what I write several times over before posting, and most of the time I edit as I write, but you can't beat a fresh set of eyes. Also, as the author, I know what I mean to say, so errors are less obvious.

Ladybug leapt easily onto one of the balconies on the condo. She turned, leaning on the railing and taking a moment to admire her view of the Eiffel Tower a dozen blocks away, entertaining a smile at her trick as her transformation released.

Tikki giggled as she settled on her shoulder.

“It’s been awhile since we’ve done that,” the kwami said as they turned and entered the living room.

Ladybug smiled as she turned the lock and passed behind a plush sofa and into the kitchen. “I considered snapping my fingers first, but figured jumping off the building would be fun-er. Also, there’s the whole ‘where-did-she-go’ feeling.” she answered as she dragged the ceramic jar on the counter closer. They each took a cookie and returned to the living room, collapsing onto an armchair perpendicular to the couch. Tikki landed on the armrest to finish her cookie, then returned to her spot on her partner’s shoulder, nuzzling her cheek as Ladybug mulled the day over.

“He’s a good kid,” Ladybug eventually said reassuringly, brushing a finger over Tikki’s head. “He can handle it.” Tikki hummed an affirmation. Ladybug smiled and the two relaxed together in the dim lighting of their home-away-from-home.

* * *

Alya dropped her bag onto her bed right before she dropped onto it herself.

Who knew the whole thing would turn out to be so _big_. A war, spanning millennia, from before the written word was even invented?

With a sigh, she sat up and frowned at her laptop on the desk on the other side of the room. She stared at it for several minutes, then rose, pacing around her room.

_“You’re… really 4,000 years old?”_

_“Older, technically, but I’ve long since stopped keeping track.”_

She had every intention of keeping her silent promise to Ladybug, but something like this… it deserved to be more than just heard.

The Miraculous had a history that had gone unrecorded for far too long.

_“They’re relics from a time when magic was more common. They hold immense power within them and can do great things for their wielders…”_

Resolutely, she took a seat at her desk and turned the laptop on. She wouldn’t post it, Ladybug was right about how the world would react (well, if they even believed it), but Alya was a journalist, a _writer_ , who’d made it her duty to dig up everything about Ladybug (and Chat Noir, of course, and _boy_ was _there_ a story), and damn it, her searching had produced one _hell_ of a piece of fruit. An entire tree, actually—no. A _forest_ of them.

She held back a cringe at her silly metaphor and pulled up a word document and got to work. And if she was bleary eyed and sluggish during school tomorrow, well, it was all in a night’s work.

* * *

The journey home passed in a blur for Chat Noir; he was pretty sure Plagg had done most of the work as he went on autopilot from roof to roof until the fence surrounding the mansion came into sight.

Adrien ignored Plagg’s wines for cheese as he sat, hard, on the edge of his bed.

Plagg cut himself off as he took in his partner’s state and tentatively scratched his head. He trusted Ladybug’s and Tikki’s judgement on revealing things to Chat Noir, but it was tough to see the result of it first-hand on the boy. Even more so when the Chat had already fallen for her, and he always fell _hard_ when he did.

Adrien had always noticed that behind the confidence and brightness of her eyes, lay a great sadness. And loneliness.  She was good at burying it, but it drew him in, reminding him of himself and his own feelings, and he hated to see it in hers.

_“Five mighty warriors! Protecting mankind from whatever appeared to harm them!”_

Her enthusiasm of the memory of her old team had made him smile, and he could _almost_ picture it. Five figures, his Ladybug, the first Chat Noir, and three other hazy, heroic shapes facing the monsters of an era long over, rising victorious over each one, until…

_“The first Chat Noir and I searched all over the world for them, but we couldn’t find the slightest trace of them. They were just… gone…”_

Adrien tried to imagine how differently it could’ve been, to be part of a _group_ of akuma-fighters—would they even still fight akuma if… whatever had happened, hadn’t? Would they be immortal or just be regular teenagers, called by an ancient force to fight. Would they share their civilian lives with each other? Adrien would like to imagine they would. Hanging out like normal kids until they’d be needed to jump to humanity’s defense…

Maybe he’d get the chance to ask his Ladybug out; would another of the group be his wing-man or woman, cheering him on and smoothing the way, and in return, Adrien could do the same for them… The thought tickled something in the back of his mind.

Adrien sat up as he caught a glimpse of Plagg, floating a bit in front of him.

_“With the last shred of his will, carefully preserved by his kwami, he used cataclysm on himself.”_

“You knew what the first Chat had planned.”

Plagg nodded reluctantly. “Yeah; things were pretty dire, then. I… didn’t like it; I _hated_ it, but I trusted him.” Plagg hesitated, then flew closer and placed a paw on Adrien’s forehead.

“I still do.”

Adrien smiled slightly, and quietly crossed his room to the mini-fridge, finally getting out some Brie. As Plagg chowed down, Adrien gathered his night-clothes and headed for the bathroom.

After his shower, he settled into bed, Plagg having long since nestled into the padded basket Adrien had hidden for him between his bed and the wall.

He turned onto his side, frowning, mind troubled with the echo of something else she had said; it took much longer than usual for him to finally drift off into sleep.

_“Chat used his Miraculous to tie his own life, his fate, with Hawkmoth’s.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’ve been in the fandom long enough to hear everyone’s theory on who Hawkmoth is, it’s pretty obvious what I’m aiming for. 
> 
> I have a reason for continuing to call her ‘Ladybug’ even when she’s in civilian form, which will be explained later. 
> 
> Marinette still works at the bakery, though it’s slightly larger here and is a café specializing in cakes and pastries. 
> 
> I don’t know if in canon, Adrien has a mini-fridge in his room, but considering everything else he has, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch.


End file.
